A new museum, an online archive and a film season offer some great resources for researching – and teaching about – youth culture. Taken together, they raise some interesting questions about who represents youth culture, and how we define it.
Category Archives: Youth
Art and youth work in post-war Britain: ‘Journey into a Fog’
A forgotten best-seller of the mid-1950s sheds light on youth culture and the potential of creative youth work. Continue reading
Mutant Mayhem: understanding the longevity of the Ninja Turtles
The latest Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles movie breathes new life into a children’s franchise that might have been considered long past its sell-by date.
Youth representing youth
Two recent films, produced collaboratively with groups of young people, raise some interesting questions about representation. A discussion of Sarah Gavron’s Rocks (2020) and Fred Baillif’s La Mif (The Fam, 2021). Continue reading
A suburban scene: youth and music in sixties London
In the late 1950s and 1960s, the south-west London suburbs of Richmond and Twickenham were a hotbed for innovation in popular music. What can the history of this very local music scene tell us about youth culture more broadly?
Citizenship and media education in contested times: an interview with Shakuntala Banaji
In the second of two posts looking at citizenship and media education, this is an interview with one of the most interesting thinkers and researchers in this area, Professor Shakuntala Banaji.
Revisiting youth subcultures
Looking back at Dick Hebdige’s classic book Subculture: The Meaning of Style, on the anniversary of its first publication forty years ago.
The challenge of youth media
How can youth media production promote civic and political understanding and activism? A review and an interview with Steve Goodman.
Cyberbabble: screens and young people’s mental health
Questioning some of the media hype about ‘mental health’ in recent debates about children, young people and social media.
Who are the young creatives?
Why is it still so difficult for disadvantaged young people to gain access to employment in the media industries? And what – if anything – can media educators do about this situation?
